Mindset Mistakes – I made all 5 of these :(

Mindset Mistakes – I made all 5 of these :(

It’s 8AM as I write this blog post, I’m staring out the windows of my condo (a pretty view up as a storm passing by) and reminiscing of the days I got started as an entrepreneur.

I hated my job. I worked my ass off, but I didn’t feel like what I did was changing the world and I absolutely wasn’t valued for who I was. I knew I had to get out.

So with that thought I quit. I said I can do this myself.

I didn’t have any savings really, and I didn’t really think through what this decision would entail to survive.

Just one of those moments, where frustration meets resolve.

I remember, I didn’t even have a desk… I worked on the floor on a laptop or my tiny tiny kitchen table in a 550 SQ ft townhouse. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get me going.

And a few years later, I’m here.

In a place where the living room is probably the same size as that entire townhouse. Oh how things change.

But, I made a number of major mistakes during that time that could have absolutely changed my traction 10x.

Most of it was Mindset issues I had to face and get through to truly understanding my Goal.

Because I had jumped so fast, I didn’t set myself up for success. More like I jumped off a cliff and didn’t even realize I was falling till I nearly hit the ground lol.

For those of you on the journey, here’s a few mindset things you’ll face:

1) “This will be easy!” – Yeah sounds pretty stupid, right? Oh how naive I was. Silly young David *facepalm*. Look, at the end of the day this is a business it’s not always going to be easy and fun. And as one of my favorite quotes goes – “Nothing worth doing is easy.”

Mentally prepare yourself that you’re going to be going on a journey and it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve ever faced before. Those people who trek Everest and train and work and accomplish that greatness. Yeah, it’s like that. (Don’t mistake it for a 5 minute walk on a treadmill)

2) “If I can increase my hourly rate, I can make more money”– Oops. There was the employee mindset coming out. Sneaking through the warm feeling of entrepreneurship which said ‘I’m not working for anyone’. Instead of creating a company – I created myself a job. Be careful of this trap. You have to catch this one before it’s too late and you build something that keeps you stuck in misery.

3) “I can find a partner and that makes everything easier!” – Yeah. This is a common one. Instead of taking the hard road. The road of learning and growth and partnering to make things easier. There’s NOTHING wrong with Partnering if you both fit together with mission, drive, and the will to help each other in specific areas, but there IS a problem if both parties just want to lean on the other for the daily nitty gritty. It ends up messy and no one doing anything.

4) “Hey look, this guy is crushing it doing X. Let me do that too!” – We’ve all heard of the ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’. I call this one the ‘Shiny Strategy Syndrome’. Just because someone is making money doing some strategy or business model doesn’t mean you need to do it too. Focus is way more valuable than following the trends. Plus, if it’s just about making money, you’re going to step into the business and realize you really have ZERO passion in it. You’ll give up near instantly. Been there.

5) “I don’t need a goal, I’ll figure it out along the way”– This is probably the most important one. It’s actually something I think most starting entrepreneurs do. But, without a specific and tangible goal, getting lost in the weeds is what inevitably happens.

Focus is built from having a specific goal in mind and taking steps towards it.

Just running forward doesn’t mean progress, in fact, if you don’t have directions you wouldn’t know if you’re running backwards or forwards! You’re just running to run (which is cool and all I like running… but, this will sink you faster than anything).

When you’re first starting out, it seems easiest to put goals on MONEY. Why? Because the first thought we have usually comes in the form of financial security.

And rightly so. Maybe it’s $100/day or $5,000/Month to be able to quit your job.

Either way, you need to be specific on this. This is the only way you can truly goal set on the actions needed to accomplish this.

Trust me, once you hit that financial goal and you push past it, you’ll do it again even higher.

Once you hit that again and start making money, you’ll realize that you were wrong all along and chasing money was never the goal (but, we’ll get there soon).

Be careful about making outlandish goals when you start out. Mine was $10,000/month.

But, if I had said $100,000 month, honestly, no matter my plan I might not have been able to wrap my brain around what it took to get there. I had never earned 100,000 in a year, let alone in a month!

I would have circled and circled, so start reasonable and reverse engineer it from there.

$10,000/month meant – $2,500/ week or $357/ Day. Not so bad.

When you break it down in a smaller chunk, your goals don’t seem too hefty.

Then you can start to figure out which sales channels will work best.

I mentioned this in my last post too, be specific especially if your goal isn’t related to Money. Maybe it’s how your daily life looks, where you live, how you live, who you live with, what size business you have, the respect you may have at that level and so on. It doesn’t MATTER.

Pick it and be specific. Reverse Engineer the steps to get there.

Here’s the tools I use for Goal Setting:

Simpleology – This is what I use everyday to start my day. This app is focused on goal setting, daily habits, productivity, and delegation. All the keys to progress. I highly recommend the upgrade too. I even download their little mini courses and read through them for any added nuggets. They make them into fun comics to make it more engaging (cuz c’mon talking about “productivity” is never ‘sexy’).

http://www.stridesapp.com/ – This is a new one I found that is a great little app. It helps you set up your goals, practice habit building, and then measure those results. Nothing builds results like accountability and visual aids. Use it. It’s free 😀